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Sunday, December 7, 2014

Day of Infamy and Your Security

Isoroku Yamamoto was a Fleet Admiral and Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) during World War II. He was a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy and an alumnus of the U.S. Naval War College and Harvard University. He died during an inspection tour of forward positions in the Solomon Islands when his transport aircraft was ambushed by American P-38 Lightning fighter planes. His death was a major blow to Japanese military morale during World War II.
He is often misquoted because of a line his character said in the movie, “Tora! Tora! Tora!”. The line is:
“I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”
There is no evidence that he ever said this line. But he did say this:
“A military man can scarcely pride himself on having ‘smitten a sleeping enemy’; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack.”
And he said this:
“In the first six to twelve months of a war with the United States and Great Britain I will run wild and win victory upon victory. But then, if the war continues after that, I have no expectation of success.”

The President of the United States, Franklin D. Roosevelt said this in addressing congress to ask for a declaration of war:
“Yesterday, December 7, 1941——a date which will live in infamy——the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.”

World war II changed this country. Some of those changes were that we came together. The entire country sacrificed to make the war a success. There was a change in women’s roles in this country. In talking with my Mother, who was in high school when the war started, she feels that we as a country have lost the unity that we had at that time.
I hope that we can remember this day with reverence. For it was a day that we were caught unaware. This country’s “situational awareness”was in condition White. As we remember those we lost in that treacherous attack, we can also remember those who were lost by a horrible bomb called “Little Boy”, an atomic bomb. Many will debate that an atomic bomb was a fitting end to a war started for the U.S. by a treacherous act. As someone who only knows of that war by watching movies and reading books, I choose to remember those who fought so hard to keep us free. As Communism began to flood the earth after that war, so extremist thinking and acts are now covering our version of the world in 2014.
Freedom is never free my friends. But we must be vigilant in fighting against this extremism. For it is as treacherous as that fateful Sunday morning of the day of infamy.
Crime and terrorism is linked through evil. We need to watch our own “6" and that of our family. If we do not, no one else will.
World war II is far enough away from my generation that we do not completely understand it. In 2001 we gained a little more understanding. What concerns me is that the generations to come will not understand either of these events and something in the future will happen again.
As this year comes to a close this is a good time to review your security and preparedness plans. Change them if you need to. Be a force for good in this world and be prepared for what is to come.